Planer board for musky fishing

[Rizzo]

Thinking of picking up some planer boards for musky fishing, but I have never seen one up close (just other boats as they pass by) so please excuse if my questions seem clueless. Can any board be used or would some not be suitable (ie too lightweight). I imagine the ones that are directly on your line just stay on the line as you fight the fish, but the ones on the mast likely have a clip so your line detaches from the board when a fish hits? You bring in the fish, board stays out there? I have seen a few on kijiji with names like off-shore, riviera etc. Any suggestions?

Edited August 10, 2013 by Rizzo

[Roy]

Roger, I can't imagine why you'd want planer boards for muskie.

[outllaw]

boards are awesome. if you want open water trolling. musky/salmon/walleye. if your serious get the mast system. you will never look back. you can stagger baits at different depths/distance .. when the fish hits its the clip releases then you fight the fish only. as for nay-sayers on dragging fish,,,not so. when the fights on turn the boat with the waves. then you can neutral bump and fight the fish. believe me I ran boards on all great lakes. they are the most valuable tool for multiple lines and spooky fish.

[Rizzo]

Hey Roy...I hope to get a few extra guys in the boat and planers will allow me to troll more lines effectively. I also think they will help on lake St Clair where there is a lot of floating weeds.

[Andy]

After looking into it last year and checking out a lot of US musky sites, I picked up a pair of the regular orange Church walleye boards. I tested one out on Nipissing briefly, with the adjustable weight all the way forward, and I do think they will prove to be undersized for hard pulling baits. I plan to put them out with lighter, higher running baits like smaller cranks and easier pulling bucktails (not Cowgirls) when I take them to St. Clair. I troll with 80 lb. braid and I wrapped it around the release that comes on the board. It held well, but I will have to remove the line from the release and board when it gets to the boat. I think the boards I purchased will struggle in rougher water as well. Church makes a larger board , T- something or other , which would definitely handle the bigger baits better, but I bet they would feel like you are pulling a truck on your rod.

If I don't like the boards, I'll still keep them should I try for walleye on Erie sometime.

I only fish St. Clair once or twice a year on a smaller boat when the weather is nice, so I plan to give the small boards a decent shot. But if I was fishing it regularly, I would likely have gone to big boards and a mast like the locals and charters do.

This probably didn't help you that much, I just thought I'd share what I know, which isn't much on a good day. Good luck. Andy

Edited August 10, 2013 by Andy

[captpierre]

saw somebody with the big boards/mast trolling over deep water on the north end of Pigeon.

 

took a double take. a first for me

 

wondered how they did. didn't look like a productive technique to me over 40 feet of water

 

I could be mistaken though. been wrong once before

[Rizzo]

Well I went out and bought one this afternoon. It is a church tx 44 super planer. Says it can pull dipsies so I figured that would be good enough for what I plan to do. Maybe it will do everything except a double 10?

[outllaw]

Rizzo. watch the clips. braids can slip. we also use them boards for walleyes here. 1 oz inline 5ft worm harness at 1.4mph. if ya get the chance theres lots of eater walters in st clair. west of the barn 12ft.

[Rizzo]

I had heard that about braid. But maybe 80lb is thick enough it won't slip? This thing says it has a vice grip. The fact it can pull dipsies it must grab that line pretty good. Worst case scenario, it looks like instead of putting the line in the vice grip i can just wrap it a couple of times around it. Will make it a bit tougher to unhook with a musky yanking on the other end but whatever!

[Rizzo]

...oh and thanks for the tips on the walters, but i don't eat fish. Plus, catch enough of them dang pesky things when I'm musky fishing...already got one my first time out there on a believer

[John Bacon]

If you are running boards off of a mast, you shouldn't have any problems. Most in-line planer boards would struggle with large muskie baits.

[doubleheader]

The last couple weeks I'm just tired of walleye fishing so I turned my attention to musky. Cast until I'm tired then troll. Last week i put on an inline board with a bucktail so i could troll the big shoreline structure. It worked very well but I did have to slow down some with my smaller boards. The presentation looked awesome in this clear water and I could drag it just in front of big undercut shore rock. I was sure we'd hook-up, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Give it a shot. Anything that pulls hard or at speed would be trouble for an in-line board.

Edited August 12, 2013 by doubleheader

[steelhedrmatt]

I have used the regular church boards on Lake O with 10 colours of leadcore out with no issues. It just doesnt plane out as far. Still gets the baits away from the boat.

[BucktownAngler]

[Rizzo]

Hey Matt you are right about the distance. I found the board didn't track too far out to the side...but that didnt matter. Couldn't have had it out there 5 minutes when that line got nailed! Unfortunately, waves really picked up and once we were in 2 footers the board would dive, and once it dove it would slip. That happened a couple of times and then I gave up. Calmer water I'm excited to try it again, but in bigger waves forget it